Paid Search:
The Polo to Your Marco

Customers are searching for you.
(Right now.)

Every day, these potential customers scour the internet for your solution to their unique problem or need. But with an online market that’s more saturated than ever, beating out the competition can feel impossible.

In-house digital marketing can help boost your brand awareness — but between social media, content, and email marketing, it can feel like you’re barely hanging on. The ticket to real growth a la increased traffic and leads? Paid search.

Or, more specifically, paid search services from an award-winning agency.

What Are Paid Search Services?

Paid search services are digital marketing strategies that use search engine networks (like Google, Bing, and Yahoo) to advertise.

Paid search ads are commonly recognized as the listings at the top of a search engine results (SERP) page, branded with a small “Ad” label.

These text ads look an awful lot like the organic listings (sneaky, eh?). Promoting your brand, offer, product, or service, these ads show up on the SERP when relevant, designated keywords are used to enter a search query.

When a user clicks the ads, the advertiser pays a fee to the search engine.

And while text ads get most of the attention, paid search ads also include display ads (those visual ads that appear on third party websites), video ads, and Shopping ads, among others.

PPC vs. Paid Search

While these two terms are used almost synonymously, they’re not exactly the same thing. To get a little technical, paid search is a type of PPC marketing.

While PPC ads can also appear in social media feeds, banner ads, and yes, in search results, paid search ads only appear in SERPs. Ever heard “all squares are rectangles but not all rectangles are squares”? A similar principle applies here, most paid search ads are PPC ads, but not all PPC ads are paid search ads.

Why Paid Search?

Put simply, paid search works.

When a user wants to buy, they click on the ads at the top of the SERP. Paid search can be the missing link between you and those customers who are searching for you.

Here’s an example:


When Peer Software wanted to increase brand awareness and drive leads through ad campaigns on an international scale, they partnered with HawkSEM. After creating PPC campaigns for both Google and Microsoft platforms, we helped Peer Software increase conversions 128%, saw a more than 46% decrease in cost per conversion, and increased clicks to the website by 126%

Following that example, benefits of paid search include:

  • Darn-good data: With paid search efforts, you get almost-instant, quantifiable data that helps savvy advertisers make optimizations that scale your efforts in a matter of months.
  • Paid search data is also applicable to other digital channels, to help create a holistic marketing approach that’s proven to drive results.
  • You can target your audience more directly to address real-world problems/questions your customers are already asking, and lead them to your solution.
  • You’ll likely get more traffic, faster due to targeting organic terms for which you aren’t currently ranking.

Paid Search Services: Why You Need the Pros

Have you run paid search ads for a while?

With a healthy budget, a scalable business model, and a service or product that people need, you probably know that pay-per-click (PPC) marketing is the right move for your business.

Pulling in high-intent traffic should be a breeze.

But perhaps you plateaued with your existing efforts or agency, or you found that in-house PPC management took too much time or too many resources.

Maybe your internal marketing team needs help to elevate your efforts — or, after a disappointing experience with another marketing agency, you feel ready to try again (with a more ROI-focused agency).

If your paid search marketing feels less like a boost and more like a flop, it’s time to hire the right paid search advertising agency.

Paid Search Services from HawkSEM

Your business is brilliantly unique — and so are we.

On average, clients who partner with HawkSEM see a 4.5x return on their investment (ROI), as well as:

HawkSEM has continued to be the industry leader in the digital marketing space for over fifteen years.

Recognized as one of the top 3% of agencies in the country by Google’s Premier Partners network and hand-selected as a Microsoft Advertising Partner, it’s no surprise (but thrilling all the same) that we have a 98% retention rate.

And made up of associate-and-above level employees, HawkSEM only hires team members with over three years of experience. That means we can spend our time getting ahead of new trends, without wasting any time training entry level employees on the basics of Google Ads.

What we’re saying is you deserve paid search services from a team that works as hard as you do.

Whether you need to increase your return on ad spend (ROAS) or lower your cost per click (CPC), HawkSEM is the paid search partner you deserve.

Results Are Everything

HawkSEM in 90 seconds

Paid Search Services: What We Offer (& What You Should Expect)

Let’s be honest: We would love to partner with you here at HawkSEM.

But, more importantly, we want to ensure you end up with the best agency for your business — not just any ol’ marketing company that might take your money and vanish.

So, we’re going to outline what our paid search services include.

  • Customized paid search strategy
  • Campaign buildout
  • ConversionIQ: Optimization rocket fuel
  • Data analysis and optimization
  • Seamless reporting and communication

And while this isn’t an exhaustive list, detailing all the additional work we put into each step, it will act as a checklist for the minimum of what you should expect from a prospective PPC agency.

Customized Paid Search Strategy

We begin our paid search client relationships with an in-depth audit of your current campaigns.

No campaigns running? No problem. Our team can still conduct a thorough analysis of your digital presence, through other marketing channels and your website — narrowing in on opportunities like and content gaps and conversion rate optimization.

After reviewing all the nooks of your campaigns, from bidding strategies to conversion tracking setup, we’ll come back with an action plan to improve your campaigns right off the bat.

This marketing plan is yours to keep, whether you choose to partner with us or not.

This is also about the time that we dive deeply into your brand, identifying:

  • Your business goals
  • Target audience and demographic research
  • Competitor analysis (including direct and indirect competitors)
  • Search query and keyword research
  • Current ranking, using data tools like Semrush, Google Trends, and Auction Insights
  • Key performance indicators (KPIs)
  • Best channels to utilize (Google ads, FKA Google AdWords, or Microsoft Ads, for example)

Campaign Buildout

After our thorough campaign and brand analysis, it’s time to build some campaigns tailored to your goals.

Now, this is where things get a little technical. But here are some highlights of what goes into a campaign buildout:

  • Conversion tracking setup
  • Ensuring your account is properly configured
  • Building designated campaign types (Google Search ads, Display ads, Video ads, Shopping ads, Performance Max) and remarketing campaigns
  • Using relevant keywords to organize your ad groups
  • Crafting compelling ad copy
  • Building a strong negative keyword list
  • A/B testing
  • Implementing a strategic bidding strategy
  • Creating landing pages with strong calls to action (CTAs)
  • Optimizing your website

Our process is different from most agencies for many reasons — but perhaps most notably because it includes ConversionIQ.

ConversionIQ: Optimization Rocket Fuel

Hold on to your socks, y’all. This is where we shake things up.

ConversionIQ is a marketing platform, ideated, designed, and created by HawkSEM. This platform connects all your marketing tools into one easy-to-navigate dashboard. We’re talking Google Ads, Microsoft Ads, social media campaigns and channels, email marketing, Hubspot, and Google Analytics. In other words, all the pieces of your marketing campaigns come together in one place.

Why is this so spectacular?

With all your data in one place, you can finally see the full picture of your marketing metrics, highlighting where there might be missed opportunities or successes to capitalize on.

In some ways, ConversionIQ is a reporting tool, giving our clients access to their account data and activity anytime — not just during our regular check-ins.

But here’s where ConversionIQ becomes a money-maker: We use the insights provided by the platform to make insanely effective optimizations.

ConversionIQ in Action

See it in Action

Most of HawkSEM’s lead generation clients came to us with a high volume of low-quality leads.

After implementing ConversionIQ, the software made it clear that while some keywords converted at high volumes with a low cost per lead, the long-tail, low-volume keywords drove most of the revenue.

With that insight, we overhauled our lead generation campaigns and allocated those budgets to maximize ROAS.

The result?

2X lead volume

40% lower cost per acquisition

60% improved lead quality

Meanwhile, our ecommerce clients like Nike and Verizon drove a healthy volume of revenue. New customer acquisition costs, on the other hand? Those were higher than their customer lifetime value, with little growth in net new customer numbers.

ConversionIQ uncovered that in many instances, although there were spikes in new customers, the order values were low and didn’t lead to repeat purchases.

With that, we optimized those campaigns leading to a drastic increase in lifetime value while improving ROAS by 109%.

Data Analysis & Optimization

Most agencies won’t have ConversionIQ at their disposal to make bulletproof optimizations.

However, general campaign analysis and optimization practices apply for all effective search engine marketing and management services.

Once your ads are up and running, we track every action (large and small) and, within a week or two, use that data to:

  • A/B test ad copy, keyword variations, and landing pages
  • Update ad copy, assets, and ad formats
  • Make conversion rate optimizations to your site
  • Update negative keyword lists
  • Tweak the advertising budget and bidding strategy
  • Improve Quality Score
  • Narrow in on more intent-based, long-tail keywords
  • Try new match types

This is a recurring practice that never ends. Learn more about what goes into paid search optimizations here.

Seamless Reporting & Communication

No matter who takes on your paid search campaign management, it’s critically important that your team is committed to transparency and communication.

When it comes to ads management, that means regularly scheduled reports that are easy to understand and highlight the KPIs that matter to you.

How often do you want to communicate with your team? Would you prefer phone calls, emails, video chats, or pre-recorded videos?

At HawkSEM, we believe in the power of flexibility for our clients — adapting to their needs and anticipating questions to alleviate any concerns.

The result? Empowered clients and long-lasting partnerships.

More Than a Paid Search Services Agency

Do you only want your prospective agency to manage your paid search campaigns? Or do you want an agency that can take on your other digital marketing channels?

While some agencies offer paid search as their sole service, HawkSEM specializes in a larger scope of digital marketing services beyond paid search.

This includes:

  • Search engine optimization (SEO)
  • Social media marketing
  • Email marketing
  • Conversion rate optimization
  • Landing page design
  • Remarketing and retargeting
  • Content marketing
  • Google Shopping ads and feed management
  • Performance display
  • Specific industry expertise (such as SaaS and e-commerce)

Check out our case studies to learn more about our client success across marketing strategies and platforms.

Meet the Team

How Paid Search Management Fits Into Your Digital Marketing Strategy

Even on its own, PPC is wildly effective.

But combined with other platforms, paid search is the most powerful marketing tool at your disposal.

  • PPC and SEO

    If any two marketing strategies complement and propel each other forward, it’s this power couple. Search engines put a lot of work into sorting through an endless library of content to find the most relevant, high-quality matches for each unique search query.

    To rank highly on the SERP organically, your website needs to be fast, easy to navigate, and safe — and your content needs to be valuable, engaging, and speak to the visitor’s needs. Now, the algorithm that helps your site rank highly on the results pages organically derives from the algorithm that ranks the paid ads that appear at the top of the SERP.

    In other words, by ranking highly organically, your ads are more likely to win out in the Google Ads auction.

    There’s a whole lot more to the power of PPC and SEO, but you can learn more here.

  • PPC and Email Marketing

    Not to be outdone, email marketing and paid search come in a close second when it comes to world-domination duos.

    We all know email marketing is an effective way to turn those almost-customers into the real deal. But to get a hold of those email addresses? Well, that requires increasing quality traffic to your website via PPC ads.

    PPC hooks the lead, email marketing nurtures the conversion, and PPC comes right back around for those remarketing ads.

  • PPC and Social Media Marketing

    Some folks consider social media ads to be a form of PPC; partly because the social advertising system is similar to search engine marketing (SEM) ads.

    And in many ways, social media is a search engine of its own kind.

    Users take to social platforms to learn more about brands and products in a more authentic way by reading customer reviews and checking if the brand is followed or liked by a mutual friend.

    So whether paid social or organic, social media marketing is an effective way to find new customers and get interested prospects to trust you.

PPC Services: Pricing

When you’re on the hunt for the right paid search marketing services, cost will probably be at the top of your mind.

That said, many agencies offer different pricing models. Here’s what you might expect to see:

  • Flat Fee

    No surprises.

    A flat-fee model should mean you pay a standard monthly fee, although there is often a set up fee up front as well.

    That said, many agencies will use a tiered flat fee model. Meaning that while a $5,000 PPC advertising budget is a $500 monthly service fee — a $10,000 ad budget means a $1,000 fee.

    Why? More money, more work.

  • Percentage of ad spend

    This is a commission based pricing model, where agencies get a percentage of your monthly ad budget.

    The percentage can typically range from 10%-20% , with some higher-level agencies charging closer to 30%

  • Performance-based fees

    Finally, performance-based fees are the ol’ we get paid when you get paid model — sort of.

    See, in this case, agencies will ask you to pay them for the leads they pull in. That means leads who may or may not convert. In other words, these agencies could focus entirely on quantity over quality in order to be profitable. So be sure you’re working with a reputable agency.

Here’s the thing:

The cost of paid search can mean much more than your ad budget and service fees, depending on the team you choose.

Be sure to confirm what is included with your advertising services and what might be tacked on later.

We make things happen …but don’t take our word for it:


  • CSUN

  • Patch Of Land

  • Google Partner

  • Google Premier Agency

The Bottom Line

Partnering with the right paid search agency can help you hit those business goals and scale away.

Here are three reasons HawkSEM should be at the top of your list:

  1. 1. We are top 3% of agencies in the country
  2. 2. We have a 98% retention rate
  3. 3. Our clients average a 4.5X ROI
  4. Here’s a bonus one (because we like to under-promise and over-deliver):
  5. 4. We are the only agency in the world with access to ConversionIQ

We could give you a few more reasons, and so could our clients — but we’re tired of talking about ourselves.

We want to hear about you.

Let’s chat to find out if we’re a match made in marketing heaven.

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  • Dramatically improve ROI
  • Outperform the competition
  • Increase conversion volume
  • Better track ROI
  • Reduce cost per acquisition
  • Improve lead quality

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